Men's Basketball Drops Another Heartbreaker, 58-55, at Mount St. Mary's

Senior guard Brian Neller's fall-away three from 23 feet just
before the horn sounded hit the front rim and the Retrievers
slipped to 1-4 in games decided by five points or less.

The Retrievers produced their best defensive effort against a
Division I opponent in 2012-13, but the unheralded Mountaineer post
game provided the difference in the win.

Mount junior forward Kristijan Krajina hit all four field goal
attempts from inside the paint in the second half and scored a
game-high 14 points for the victors.

The Retrievers trailed for the majority of the second half,
falling behind by as many as eight points at 39-31 with 14:30 to
play. But junior posts Chase Plummer
(Plainfield, N.J./St. Patrick) and Brett Roseboro
(Quakertown, Pa./Quakertown) sparked a rally which overcame that
deficit.

Sophomore guard Joey Getz
(Philadelphia, Pa./Archbishop Wood), who missed five games with an
injured ankle and saw his first action since Dec. 1., capped the
13-4 run with a reverse layup to give the visitors a 44-43 lead
with 6:53 remaining.

But Mount scored on its next possession and rebuilt the
advantage to 52-46 with 4:44 to play. UMBC again rallied and tied
the game at 53-all on a pair of free throws by Roseboro with 1:35
remaining.

Mount's Josh Castellanos would hit one of two free throws with
63 seconds to play, giving the Retrievers a chance to take the lead
in the final minute. But Getz' pull-up jumper was short with 37
seconds left and he fouled Krajina on the rebound.

The Mount post hit both free throw attempts to restore the
hosts' lead to 56-53. Senior guard Ryan Cook (Laurel, Md./Pallotti)
hit a 16-foot jumper to trim the deficit to 56-55 with 12 seconds
left, but Castellanos converted both free throw attempts to set up
UMBC's final, unsuccessful attempt.

Roseboro posted his fourth double-double of the season with 10
points and 10 caroms. Cook scored 10 of his team-high 12 points in
the first half and Plummer added 11 points.

UMBC led a tightly-contest first half until Mount guard Julian
Norfleet buried a trey to give the hosts a 17-15 lead with 10:21 to
play in the stanza. The Mountaineers completed a 8-0 run to lead by
22-15, but the Retrievers responded with a 9-2 surge to knot the
score at 24-all with 3:09 remaining.

The hosts took a 26-25 lead at the break. The Retrievers were
10-of-20 from the floor and 4-of-6 from behind the arc, but also
committed 11 turnovers in the first 20 minutes.